Hot Water Heating

Hot Water Heating, is a method of heating an area with water that has been heated by a boiler and circulated through radiation in the room being heated. This is a very economical and comfortable way to heat a home or business. New advances in technology have made it possible to increase efficiency and reduce carbon emissions from fuel burning appliances.

Many homes today use forced hot water heating to climate control their living space. For many years this has been known as the most comfortable way to heat a home. Slow convection through installed radiation keeps the room at a comfortable level in all areas and makes heating these spaces as efficient as possible.

Advances in technology have increased the savings a system of this type can show. Adding innovations like outside temperature sensors, incorporated with modulating gas valves, that will ramp up the BTU output of the appliance when colder temperatures are experienced, can save extra fuel when only a small amount of gas is used on warmer days.

Oil burners have advanced as well and now burn at a much cleaner rate then in previous years. Manufacturers have spared no expense to make sure their new equipment satisfies the general publics desire to save money as well as the environment.

A typical hot water system will consist of a boiler, a piping system, and radiation within the area being heated. Boilers can be oil fired, gas fired or even wood fired to supply the system with heated water. All three basically just provide the energy or BTU's the house requires to maintain a set temperature in extreme conditions.

This heated water is then pumped through a piping system and delivered to a room or area, where radiation will then disperse the heat through the convection process and into the air.

Pumping the hot water is accomplished with an electric circualtor pump and one will be assigned and installed for each zone or thermostat, within the system.

The series of operation for the basic hot water heating system is generally started with the thermostat calling. This happens when the temperature in the room drops below where you have the thermostat set. A circuit is closed and a call is sent to the zones relay. This call then goes out from the relay, to that pump as well as the boiler. This gets the boiler fired and hot water pumping through this zone.

As the heat dissipates from the radiation into the room, the water is cooled and sent back to the boiler to be reheated. This circulation continues until the thermostat temperature rises up to where it has been set and then the circuit breaks and everything goes into standby and waits for the next call.

There are other components that are used to aide in the proper flow and direction of heat. Multi zone systems require many valves and multiple relays with extensive wiring. Zone valves may be incorporated to reduce cost for larger systems with many zones. Each zone will be individually controlled and these types of systems will have a pipe to and from each zone.

Hot water heating is a very simple method of climate controlling our homes. Zoning capabilities have made it very economical. Domestic hot water can be made with the same system reducing installation cost and a need for a second burner.